::A Bit of History::v. Mara::

::A Bit of History::v. Mara::

Mara woke to sound of a nightingale outside her window. Its sweet song offered no comfort to her in any way; not to her tired eyes, or her aching limbs, or her pounding head. Only sleep could remedy that--and the stupid bird was depriving her of that need. The nightingale trilled a few more bars of some sparkling melody, before squawking in surprise and flying away to avoid the kunai that soared out Mara’s window. She knew she had to get some sleep. If she didn’t, she’d never meet her father’s standards tomorrow.

No, scratch that, said a quiet voice in her head and glanced out at the rising sun. Today.

Her eyes had just begun to close again when her half-sleep was interrupted by rude, obnoxious knocking on the door. It paused for a moment, allowing Mara to roll over and check the time on her clock. 4:27 am. An hour earlier this morning? She groaned. “This is suicide. Or murder.” She squeezed her eyes shut one last time before springing out of bed as the knocks returned, this time more insistent. “Or both--I’m coming! I’m coming!”

She tied her hair in a loose braid and hopped around her room, trying to get her clothes over her head. The blouse was getting a little too snug--she’d have to loosen it later--but she had to tighten her belt just to keep her cut-off pants from falling. Mara had wanted to fix both pieces of attire last night, but what ninja with sense would do anything at one in the morning after they had just been beaten to a pulp by their own father? She sighed. The clothes would have to wait until tonight. Or until they magically fit her.

“Maratielle! Maratielle!” her father roared. “You’re late! You should have been at the training grounds half an hour ago!”

Mara hurried outside looking as perfect as one could look; not a strand of hair was out of place, there was not a wrinkle in her clothes to be seen. “I’m sorry, Ota-san. Please forgive me.” She bowed, eyes to the ground. They were so heavy that she almost fell asleep right there.

“Humph,” the man grunted. “We’ll see. Your performance was pitiful yesterday.” He beckoned for her to follow him, and she did without hesitation.

She walked with him outside, meeting the cold foggy air with the slightest of winces. The autumn air was bowing in already and it nipped at her bare skin. I’d better break out my winter stuff, Mara thought with a sigh.

A Chuunin approached them and bowed to her father. “Mirono-sama,” the ninja said, “the woman is ready.”

Mirono nodded. “Are you sure her Sharingan is strong enough, Hoshi-san? An Uchiha would not have gone without a fight.”

“And she didn’t. We lost four men trying to restrain her until Korino-san knocked him out.”

“As expected.” Her father shrugged and began to turn away. “Take Mara-dear to the room. I’ll be with you shortly.”

“Yes sir.” The Chuunin held out his hand. “Come along, Azakami-chan.”

Something was happening and she didn’t know what it was--except that it involved her. Maybe it was that glint in her father’s eyes that scared her, or maybe even when his voice began to get that sharp edge in it, or perhaps even the way Hoshi’s hand trembled ever so slightly. She looked up at her father. “Ota-san, what’s going on? Where is he taking me?”

Mirono looked down at his daughter with a cold glare. “I’m going to make you stronger, Maratielle. You should be thankful.” In a flash he had a kunai to her neck, and a single bead of blood rolled down the blade. “You may be an eight year old with a seemingly endless pool of chakra and great control, but you lack the strength and endurance to call it forth. I will be correcting that soon.”

“How?” Mara asked, her voice shaking as Hoshi dragged her away. “What are you going to do to me?”

“Why do you want to know? All you need be worried about is the outcome, the result. Nothing else matters.”

Nothing else matters.

Nothing at all, huh? Of course--my childhood doesn’t matter, it means so little that you have every right to throw it out the window!

I’m not blind; I can see the world outside the house, I can sneak out for an hour or two when you’re drunk or sleeping or away, I know that other children don’t spend every day being beaten half-to-death because their fathers want to “make them stronger”. I do know that they play, and have friends, and enjoy life like there’s no tomorrow.

But it doesn’t matter if I know all those things. All you care about is if you’ll have another pawn to boss around later--to control, to have their absolute loyalty. You don’t care about me. I apparently “don’t matter”.


Mara jerked her arm away from Hoshi’s grasp and tried to stare defiantly at her father, but couldn’t bring herself to. She already knew what she would see if she had the courage; dark eyes and a sadistic smirk set against a face that burned with both love and loathing for her. An expression written all over it that spelled of approval and disappointment at the same time. It made no sense! When things made no sense it threw Mara’s awareness off the scale--she reeled back from an invisible blow.

Only the result matters. And I'm a failure.

She let herself be taken inside without further struggle. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen. It wasn’t like anything she said or did was going to make a difference.

Hoshi led her into a dimly lit room, where their footsteps echoed hollowly on all four walls. Mara thought she could hear someone’s faint breathing from somewhere inside. Her heart pounded a little faster, and she felt the color drain from her skin. Slowly, she backed away. Instinct told her that she had to run, run away from here and never return. She didn’t know why, but now was not the time to be picky with answers.

I have to get out. I don’t know how, but I just have to.

“I…I don’t like it in here…”

The Chuunin shut the door and blocked her way, as if daring her to try and get past him. “Why not? It’s kinda peaceful if you ask me.”

She bit her lip, eyes frantically darting around for some means of escape. It barely registered in her mind that there were no windows, and only one door. “It scares me…why am I here? What is my father going to do with me?”

Suddenly, the wooden door slid open from the outside--Mirono stood behind Hoshi, shrouded in darkness. “We’re going to fix you, Maratielle. Once we do that, you can be promoted to Genin and start your real training.”

“Tell me exactly what you’re going to do!”

Mirono waggled his head. “Tsk, tsk. So demanding of a father who only wants the best.” He laughed a little at that. “I thought you would have figured it out by now already. Don’t tell me we’ll have to perfect your intelligence, too! I always knew you were a bit slow, but this is too much!”

It was then that Mara chanced a closer look at her surroundings, aided by the light streaming in from the door. On a table near her were several medical instruments such as scalpels, needles, and blades. A few feet to her left was a raised bed encircled by IV tubes and wires. She stumbled away from them all, backing herself into a corner of the dark room.

No…no…

“Fine. If you really want to know.” He took a few steps towards Mara in her corner, towering over her, his icy calculating eyes meeting with her glassy frightened ones.

“We’re going to cut out your eye and replace it with a Sharingan, my dear. That’s all there is to it.”

===

“NO! NO! LET ME GO!”

Mara kicked and screamed, but the Hoshi and Korino wouldn’t let her go. “Stop struggling!”

“NO!”

Her father appeared right up to her face. His eyes gleamed with some sort of insane malice as he held up a silver blade. “If you don’t stop struggling, this scalpel might just…” He made a small slicing motion through the air in front of her. “…slip.”

Her breath caught in her throat. The blade was so close. It shone a dull metallic hue in the absence of light, threatening extreme pain or death. She couldn’t say a word, not with the instrument so near to her face. One little remark was all it took. Just one small--

Mara’s eyes went wide when Mirono jabbed the back of her neck with a needle filled with a clear liquid. She went limp and collapsed in his arms as the serum took effect. The two Chuunin sighed and picked her up from their Master’s arms to lay her on the raised bed, attaching wires to her arms and temples, double-checking that everything needed was at hand. Korino looked to Mirono and nodded.

“Now, Maratielle,” her father said, even though he knew she couldn’t hear him, “it’s time to meet Uchiha Riin.” He glanced over to Hoshi, who rolled another bed next to Mara’s from the darkness. “Your Sharingan donor. You won’t be able to say hello to her afterwards, though.” The man leaned in closer to whisper in his unconscious daughter’s ear. “We’d have to kill her, y’know. Can’t have people knowing.”

===

Riin’s eyes fluttered but didn’t open; her lips parted slightly to begin the process of relearning exactly how to breathe. Her heart pounded agonizingly in her head. Memories had begun to come back to her--

--explosions, everywhere--ambushed near Konoha--being dragged all the way to Kirigakure--fighting back, the flash of a silver needle--

The Uchiha slowly, painstakingly, turned to look to her left at the girl on the bed next to her. She must have been more than ten years younger than Riin herself, and from the looks of it she was knocked out cold.

This is cruelty.

On the far side of the girl, a shining needle filled with light-blue liquid had been placed on the table. Three ninja--two of which she recognized as some of the ninja who captured her--were preparing medical instruments and checking the girl’s vitals. Their faint voices passed her ears like dying butterflies.

“--the size three scalpel--“

“--we might need more of the knock-out serum--“

She knew that the serum injected into her bloodstream should be taking effect once more soon. There was no time to waste. Riin had listened to the whole conversation a few minutes before, and this might just be the only chance she had to make this work.

Her eyes snapped open and she swung herself out of bed, Sharingan immediately whirling. Riin forced deep reserves of chakra well up from within her, mostly from sheer will-power, as the three ninja leaped to their feet.

“Korino! Continue the removal of Maratielle’s eye! Hoshi, aid him!” Mirono ordered. “I’ll take care of the Uchiha.” He reached behind him and grasped the hilt of a kunai from his pouch.

Riin’s hand darted to the side and snatched up a couple of the scalpels. Mirono just smirked. “You really think those are going to help? You may be an Uchiha, but your strength is next to zero and your chakra levels might as well be nil.”

“Might I remind you,” Riin muttered, “that Uchiha are also skilled at Taijutsu, and that their strength is measured differently. Remember the bloodline limit.”

“Either way--“

An excruciating, piercing shriek shattered the peaceful atmosphere of the room. Mara had woken just as Korino made the first cut on her eye. The Chuunin let out a curse. She twisted away from him, clutching her right eye, crying tears of blood. Riin tried to block out the heart wrenching cries the girl emitted. She had to keep her focus on Mirono, who was currently staring furiously at the scene before him.

Strike, now!

Riin held a scalpel in each hand and charged the man, her midnight hair flying behind her. A split second before impact he back fisted her across the room, sending her crashing into the wall behind him. The wind was knocked out of her, and the Uchiha slumped to floor. She felt a sleepiness attempt to take over--the serum was trying to control her systems again.

“I told you: it’s useless. Give up now.” Mirono told her coldly, padding up to the wall and looking down on her. “Besides, I need you alive.”

She laughed, throwing up blood from her humor. “Alive? Alive? Oh; that can be fixed quite quickly, then.” Riin grinned, bittersweet, her eyes letting go of the Sharingan. “You’ll never get the Sharingan. Not from me.” She took the bigger one of the scalpels in her hand and stared at it.

So this is how it ends?

Riin looked past the metallic blade towards Mara, who was holding up well against the two Chuunin considering she had just lost an eye and was only eight years old. But the girl was tiring fast, and the older ninja were probably holding back.

I’m sorry I can’t help you, little girl. If I could, I’d take you all the way to Konoha. You’d be safe there.

Riin took the scalpel and sliced, diagonal, across her front. Blood ran down her fingers as she made another cut roughly perpendicular to the first. She grit her teeth with agonizing pain, but didn’t move to heal herself with her remaining chakra. “Hah. I’d like to see you keep me alive now.”

Mirono’s eyes went wide with shock and completely unadulterated anger. “How dare you! You Uchiha whore!”

His face was absolutely livid. Blood bubbled up from inside her as Riin chuckled again. The shouts from the three older men weren’t audible anymore, and Mara’s random screams seemed oh so far away. Please be okay. Her eyes slowly closed, and her breathing became shallower. So this is what death is like…

Riin’s last thought floated through her mind lazily, like a cloud.

Maratielle. What a pretty name.

===

Slap.

The back of Mirono’s hand connected with Mara’s face, sending her spiraling across the room. The girl’s hair tie snapped, releasing her hair in a flurry of chestnut brown. She hit the floor and skidded to a halt at the wall.

“Ugh…” she groaned, trying to push herself up with strength she didn’t have. Her right eye burned agonizingly. It was almost as if she could feel it begin to get infected, because of lack of proper treatment, and she couldn’t tell exactly how far away anything was because of her screwed up depth perception. “Ota-san, I…”

“You ruined everything.”

The man towered over his daughter, his imposing figure shadowing her petrified face and wavering lip. Mara held up an arm in front of her as if in defense. “Ota-san…please don’t be angry--“

Mirono picked her up from the collar of her shirt and brought her close enough so she could feel his breath on her skin. “Oh, I’m not angry.” He spoke calmly this time. But Mara recognized it more as barely-controlled rage. “I’m irritated. I’m fuming. I’m furious. ‘Angry’ doesn’t cut it. Why did you wake up? Why?”

Mara just stared up at him with wide, frightened eyes.

It wasn’t my fault.

“Answer me.”

Fear. That was the only emotion that was currently strong enough to permeate through her mental barrier and into her mind. Her father never shouted when he was angry. But this was not the first time he had used corporal punishment on her--there was the pulling of her hair, until a whole lock had come out by the roots; dunking her face in ice cold water and holding her there but pulling her out just before she had begun to drown; starving her of both food and sleep was probably the most common one, and the retribution that was the cause of the most harm. Either way, Mara knew that this encounter could only lead to more pain. It didn’t comfort her at all. “It…it hurt…”

Mirono tossed her to the floor. “Just as I thought. You’re stupid, you’re slow, and you’re weak. In other words, you’re useless.” She made a move to get up, but he stamped his foot down on her right arm to keep her there. “Listen to me, Maratielle! You’re useless! You’ll never make it as a ninja. Maybe, if I drill it in your head enough, it’ll finally get through that thick skull of yours! You’ll never make it as a ninja. Don’t forget that.”

Without another word he strode out of the room and slammed the door behind him, leaving Mara trembling in the dark.